WOODBURY -- The smell of smoke still hung Thursday afternoon in the air as crews combed the charred remains of a single family home damaged hours earlier in a blaze on Crescent Avenue.

Fire fighters arrived on scene in about a minute's time, rushing to the home shortly after 8 a.m. to find the entire first floor already engulfed in flames as the fire spread out and upward to the Cape Cod-styled home's attic.

“With the balloon construction of these older homes it went right up the joist,” said Woodbury Fire Chief Bill Volk. “It makes the fire very hard to find.”

The cause of the fire was still under investigation Thursday afternoon, but Volk said it likely started in the living room and was not electrical.

“It could've been incense burning,” Volk said.

One neighbor said she heard a loud “boom” as flames erupted from the home.

”The porch was solid flame,” said Sue Schrock, who lives across the street. “It was like a movie set, one you did not want to see.”

The home continued to smolder for hours Thursday as water gushed out of the charred home's front door and rolled down the steps. Fire fighters walked through the interior of the home, hacking holes through the walls and roof as they tried to find any remaining flames.

“Once it got into the second floor it was real stubborn,” Volk said.

Two and a half hours after the blaze started, fire fighters had it under control.

A water line was briefly run across Broad Street and down Crescent Avenue, closing Route 45 to traffic between Park and Edith avenues.

The fire burned a hole straight through the home. Standing before the charcoal-colored structure onlookers could see the sky behind the home through two large holes.

“It is a total loss,” said Volk after walking through the house.

A man and his wife were safely evacuated from the home. The couple was identified by fire fighters as Satinder P. Singh and Surinder P. Singh, the owners of Garden State Fuel on Broad Street in Woodbury.